Meadowlands (song)

"Meadowlands" was an anti-apartheid song composed in 1956 by Strike Vilakezi. It was written in reaction to the forced relocation of black South Africans from Sophiatown, to the new township of Meadowlands. The song was popularised by a number of musicians, including Dorothy Masuka and Miriam Makeba, and became an anthem of the movement against apartheid.

The Afrikaner National Party (NP) was elected to power in South Africa in 1948, and remained in control of the government for the next 46 years. The white minority held all political power during this time, and implemented the system of apartheid. "Apartheid" involved a brutal system of racial segregation, and the word itself meant "separateness" in Afrikaans. Black South Africans were forced to live in poverty stricken townships, and were denied basic human rights, based on the idea that South Africa belonged to white people. The NP government passed the Group Areas Act in 1950 and the Bantu Resettlement Act in 1954. These laws forcibly relocated millions of South Africans into townships in racially segregated areas. This relocation was part of a plan to separate the black population of South Africa into tiny, impoverished bantustans. The settlement of Sophiatown was destroyed during the implementation of this plan in 1955, and its 60,000 inhabitants forcibly moved. Many of them were sent to a settlement known as Meadowlands. Sophiatown had been a cultural centre, particularly for African jazz music, prior to the relocation.

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